Cortical cerebral atrophy in patients with Parkinson’s disease: new trends in the diagnostics in vivo

Abstract

The Parkinsons disease (PD) pathology is not limited by degenerationof the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system, but includesalso wide involvement of different regions of cerebral cortex. Theaim of this study was the identification of differences in the braincortical thickness in patients with early and advanced PD withthe use of MRI morphometry. Sixty seven PD patients withHoehn-Yahr 2 and 3 stages were examined. All patients underwentMRI with subsequent post-processing and receiving of corticalthickness parameters in different brain regions. Significantdifferences in the visual cortex, the cingulated and fusiform gyriand the frontopolar zone of a dominant hemisphere, and the Brodmanns areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 of a non-dominant hemispherewere obtained. These data allow revealing relationships betweennon-motor manifestations of PD and degeneration of certaincortical regions of the brain.

Keywords

• parkinson disease
• cortical atrophy
• mri morphometry